Books by Bill Johnstone

Bill Johnstone spent most of his working years as a coal miner, first in England, then in Alberta, and finally on Vancouver Island. Born in 1908 in Northumberland, England, he began working in the 'pits' as a hand miner at the age of thirteen. Mr. Johnstone immigrated to the Canadian Prairies, where he alternated between working as a farmhand and a miner in Alberta coal mines. He eventually found that his miner's certificate was a means to survive the Depression. After their marriage in 1936, Bill and Dorothy Johnstone moved to Vancouver Island. Years of hard work and study followed. Bill Johnstone mastered nearly every phase of coal mining from working on the picking tables to shooting explosive charges. He also studied mining engineering and mine rescue and was injured in a cave-in. Not long before his retirement, after fifty-two years in the mining industry, Bill Johnstone became District Superintendent of the Canadian Collieries mines near Cumberland.